PLASC Meeting Minutes 2021 November 17

Public Library Archives & Special Collections Section Meeting

Society of American Archivists

November 17, 2021, 1pm PST

Minutes

Present: Heather Lanctot, Laura Carroll, Johanna Russ, Dylan Gaffney, Matthew Peek, Jasmine Jones

Meeting began at 4:01 PM Eastern/1:01 PM Pacific

Approved October 20, 2021 meeting minutes

Updates

Chair, Heather Lanctot - encouraged everyone to participate in SAA’s A*Census survey. Also, let members know that they can recommend colleagues for the survey once it has been completed. Try to send the survey to others that work in PLASC positions so that we have good representation.

SAA Council Liaison, Jasmine Jones - Council met previous week, most of their work was in regard to SAA’s Strategic Plan, in particular the approval of the DEIA Workplan. They also reviewed all section reports, including ours. Jones did note that she saw our request for funding - the meeting to approve those requests takes place in February. In general, funding for sections is reserved for special projects that the sections may undertake. 

Vice Chair, Laura Carroll - no updates, This topic to be discussed extensively in Old and New Business Topics.

Website, Johanna Russ - no updates, minutes await posting, to be discussed in other Old and New Business Topics.

Secretary & Social Media Coordinator, Dylan Gaffney - no updates, will await goals before deciding focus of Social Media approach. Matthew will share research into social media presence of archives in SE.

Outreach, Laura Carroll - no updates, This topic to be discussed extensively in Old and New Business Topics.

Advocacy Resources, Matthew Peek

Old Business

Newsletter (Laura) - Summary of discussion from last meeting. Reached out to Descriptive Notes and Electronic Records sections and added comments. There are very few sections putting out PDF newsletters anymore, many have transferred over to blog format, and most of those use WordPress. The one notable exception being the Business Section. Their quarterly newsletter looks very impressive, they use WordPress but with a theme that makes it look very professional.  We are one of the smallest sections. Many sections do not provide a newsletter or equivalent at all. Description using free WordPress. They have a team adding content, took a while to regularize posts and schedules, put out calls for submissions, with themed topics. Web Archiving similar - monthly posts. Matthew showed an example of a Medium site “NC Stories of Service”. There is a guide to creating a newsletter. May be free. If contributors have profiles they could submit stories to then be reviewed by site administrators before publishing. Limited in layout design but does allow for alternative/descriptive texts for accessibility. Users can sign up for email delivery of posts. Heather proposed putting our last newsletter into one of these platforms to see how it would look. Medium looks easier for entry but does have some limitations, including lack of tables (would have to be uploaded as images). Laura is willing to try out both formats (basic take) and we will take a look as a group next meeting. Members will commit to create content for early posts once we are ready to go. Dylan will create a post highlighting some recent collaborations/projects. Johanna will create a piece about recent institutional reorganizing. Matthew will introduce himself in a profile piece and other members will follow suit in future posts. Catherine will be asked to write about the survey.

• Inspirations

  • Descriptive Notes - Description Section

  • BloggERS! - Electronic Records Section

  • Medium - Matthew suggestion

SROI research 

• Membership list provided by Felicia

• Next steps

New Business

Goals for This Year

• Newsletter/Blog/Communication with members (see above in Old Business section)

• Website/Advocacy Resource Page  - Matthew went over his research/analysis. Majority of links are broken or not updated, and some may not have been particularly helpful to public libraries. It might be useful to provide examples which are specifically helpful to public libraries (finding aids, policies, DEI statements, etc.). The question is how we set it up with limitations of the site. Can SROI information be added there so as not to reinvent the wheel. We might put out calls for information to be added, gather resources, but we still need to determine how we host that information. We should keep sustainability in mind as we plan. How do we build a feedback loop into newsletter and social media workflows to incorporate review of links/site into our regular work? Incorporate DEAI work into every category. It may be a helpful approach to split up work among members to analyze categories used initially, and then after New Year  seek out resources to match the categories chosen. Is there another microsite that we could either model on ours or steal their code? Members should take a look at what is out there. Matthew can reach out and compile categories as a starting point, with a goal of 5-10 categories total. Possible Twitter poll: what resources would you like to see on our page? Point members towards the page and find a way for them to add suggestions in replies or select a topic/category which is most important to them.

• Speakers/Applying for funding from SAA - funds are specific to special projects so we should keep that in mind.

Action Items

• Laura will try out putting material from last newsletter into WordPress and Medium to give us a basic sense of how the platforms might look.

• Johanna will create a draft newsletter/blog piece about recent institutional reorganizing.

• Dylan will create a draft of a newsletter/blog post highlighting some recent collaborations/projects.

• Matthew will draft a profile newsletter/blog piece to introduce himself and other members will follow suit in future posts.

• Heather will draft a summary of the Annual Meeting for the blog/newsletter

Adjourned at 4:59PM Eastern/1:59PM Pacific